Hidden in Plain Sight - A Historic Atomic Marker in Santa Fe New Mexico

We only drove about 55 miles today. After having breakfast in the arts district in Albuquerque New Mexico, we decided to visit Santa Fe. I have wanted to visit for a while but especially so after reading a fascinating book called 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos. 

Today in the courtyard patio of 109 East Palace visitors will find colorful ceramic lizards, chilies, frogs and dragonflies for sale.

Attached to the back wall is a small historic plaque.

With only a small sign that indicates a historical marker can be seen in the patio, the overwhelming majority of tourists miss it.

They pass by unaware that in the 1940's physics luminary's like Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi and Richard Feynman passed through this patio, often bringing their families with them. Each had received secret orders to report to 109 East Palace, Santa Fe New Mexico. They were tired, often having endured long journeys by train to this desolate desert city located high in the mountains at 7,199 feet of elevation.

When they arrived, they were met by Dorothy McKibbin a widow who had originally come to the New Mexico desert hoping to be cured of tuberculosis. After she recovered, she was offered a job by none other than Robert Oppenheimer, a professor from the University of California at Berkeley. Dorothy ran the secret Manhattan Project office in Santa Fe.

She would arrange for temporary lodging (often at the La Fonda Hotel), food, luggage storage and the security passes required for the physicists to travel to Los Alamos, the secret research facility located on top of a mesa where the worlds first atomic weapons were being designed and built. After a good nights rest, the physicists and their families were loaded onto busses for the 35 mile drive up the rutted and unpaved road to the Los Alamos facility. Once they saw their very basic accommodations on top of the mesa, most yearned to return to the luxurious La Fonda in Santa Fe. 

The history of 109 East Palace stretches back to 1939. In that year, Albert Einstein was persuaded to write a letter to then President Franklin Roosevelt, warning him that that in Germany the Nazi's were very close to developing their own atomic weapons. Einstein also understood that the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe was developing a long range bomber to deliver their atomic bomb to the US mainland. He strongly felt that the United States had to develop an atomic weapon first. In 1943 Oppenheimer established the Santa Fe office and the quest to develop the weapons had begun. Although the work was being carried out in the greatest secrecy, the Manhattan Project had several spies working inside the lab. They were dedicated to leaking information to the Soviet Union. Russian agents were meeting with these spies in Santa Fe restaurants, parks and even in the La Fonda Hotel.

Elk City Oklahoma to Albuquerque New Mexico

I drove 432 miles from Elk City Oklahoma to Albuquerque New Mexico today. We did have to stop at Amarillo International Airport to exchange our rental car because of a tire that had a slow leak. The helpful Enterprise agent tried to put us in a compact car after we had paid for a full size SUV but we declined. We're driving a minivan now and it's comfortable and roomy. We mainly stuck to highway 40 but did stop for lunch in at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo Texas. It's a very large restaurant but there were very few people there. Rules regarding social distancing and use of face masks were being enforced so that was good. We had fun and the food was good.

We crossed into New Mexico and once we did the clouds and rain were left behind. It was 46 degrees when we left Elk City. When we arrived in New Mexico it was 79.

Kathy made a hotel reservation for us in Albuquerque, but we wanted to drive down old Route 66 for a bit to see the city of Tucumcari New Mexico first. Our first stop was the Blue Swallow Motel which is a historic attraction on Route 66 and has been serving customers since 1939. We met Rob, one of the owners while we were taking some photos of the property. He rightly asks that no one sells images of the hotel without their permission. We of course agreed to this, so no sales of the images taken here for any purpose. Please respect their request as we do and support this important small business enterprise along with the others along Route 66.

Next we visited the TePee Curios shop which I had seen on youtube. We found some great stuff to buy and met the owners who were very helpful.

After that we got back on the highway and saw a spectacular sunset as we arrived in Albuquerque. Tomorrow  we are headed west again although we might backtrack a little and head north to visit Santa Fe or head south to visit Sedona. Either way in the days to come we will pass through Gallup, Winslow, Flagstaff, and who knows where else. Great day today.

Springfield Missouri to Elk City Oklahoma

I drove 441 miles from Springfield Missouri to Elk City Oklahoma today. We did end up cruising for quite a while down Route 66 and saw some cool stuff but didn't stop since it rained nearly all day. We did pass by the famous blue whale east of Catoosa Oklahoma and since the rain had momentarily stopped we turned the car around to check it out. Tomorrow we are heading for Amarillo Texas and possibly Albuquerque New Mexico. Hope we leave the rain behind.

Indianapolis Indiana to Springfield Missouri

I drove 454 miles from Indianapolis Indiana to Springfield Missouri today. Once we left the highway and joined up with Route 66 we found navigating difficult. Surprisingly, modern maps don't always show the route of historic Route 66 clearly. The route is on the map but it is often marked with another name or number. We did stop in a cool Route 66 museum in Litchfield Indiana, but other than stopping to eat, we stuck to the major highway and bypassed Route 66. I can't manually navigate and drive at the same time. My wife gets agitated if she has to navigate so I think the attempt to drive along Route 66 ends here. The goal of this vacation is to relax and explore. I don't want my wife to get stressed out on what is her vacation too so I think we will stick to the major highways and I can better plan the route for a solo trip I'll take at a later date. 

We may still be able to see a few things on Route 66 using a turn-by-turn navigaton app I purchased today. Who knows. Hope so.

National Museum of the United States Air Force - Dayton Ohio

I have always wanted to visit the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton Ohio. The problem has always been that it's a long way to go from California to just see one attraction. My opinion has changed. This museum is so vast, I could easily spend 3 or 4 days just looking around. We were only in the building for about 5 hours and it just wasn't enough time to see everything. This place is high on my list of places I want to return to. We were shocked when my wife asked the security guards at the bag check if they allowed tripods in the museum. The answer was a simple "Sure". My wife entered the museum while my brother-in-law and I trudged back to the car to retrieve the tripods. Wow was it worthwhile. To preserve the artifacts, the lighting level in the museum hangers is kept low. This made using a tripod especially useful. I think I took about 1,000 photos. I have included a few below. After leaving the museum, we drove from Dayton Ohio to Indianapolis Indiana which is only about 120 miles but it was already getting dark and we were tired from the 600 miles we drove the day before. So I'm typing this post on my iPad Pro in a Hilton hotel in downtown. Now that this is done, I'm headed for bed. It's onto St. Louis and Route 66 tomorrow morning.

Long Drive From Washington DC

Kathy and I arrived in Washington DC on the Amtrak Cardinal train from Chicago around 6:30pm Wednesday. We walked to our hotel, dropped off our bags and went back out to find something to eat. We were shocked at how empty Washington's Union Station was. I think Covid 19 has taken a terrible toll on the businesses that once filled the main waiting room and the other retail areas. We found something to eat, took it back to our room, ate, took showers and went to sleep. We had to pickup our rental car at Reagan National Airport at 7:00am this morning. Other than a real lack of customer service at the Alamo car rental counter, getting the car was uneventful. We drove to Maryland to pickup my wife's brother who is riding with us all the way back to California along Route 66. We made it all the way to Dayton Ohio where we will stay tonight and visit the National Museum of the United States Air Force in the morning.

While we didn't have time to take photos in Washington during our short visit, here are a couple from previous visits.

Union Station - Ornate Stairway

This is one of the beautiful stairways leading into Chicago's Union Station's great hall. Amazing!

How I took this shot:

This handheld vertorama was stitched from 4 HDR sequences each containing 3 shots ( -2ev, 0ev, +1ev). I would have used my tripod but one of the security guards was already watching me, I didn't want to give her a pretense to kick me out. It's happened to me more than a few times before.

Union Station - Group Critique Busted!

When I entered the great hall in Chicago's Union Station, I saw about 10 art students sketching the interior. I walked around for 15 or 20 minutes taking photos. When I was leaving, I noticed they had put their sketch pads on the floor and had gathered in a circle. I assume this was a group critique. I thought I could sneak up on them, raise my camera with fisheye lens above my head and get a quick shot. You can see I got busted.

Chicago - My Kind of (windy) Town

Kathy and I concluded our passage on Amtrak's Empire Builder train in Chicago. After emerging from the beautiful Union Station (once our phones had acquired enough satellites to provide GPS navigation) we walked to our nearby hotel on Franklin street. We were only going to be in town for a single day, so after getting something to eat, we walked around for a bit, taking some photos of the dramatic architecture this city has to offer. Kathy wanted to visit the Chicago Institute of Art but we found it was closed during our visit, so the next morning we walked to Millennium Park and took some photos there. Apparently the park only recently opened to the public but we found some parts open, while others remained closed. In the case of Cloud's Gate also irreverently referred to as "The Bean", visitors were able to view it only from a distance with barricades having been put up to prevent crowds from gathering beneath it. This didn't bother me too much. I was able to obtain some photos of it without a ton of people in the shot. 

The view of Chicago's skyline from Cloud's Gate is truly spectacular. The day was cold and windy but the sky was mostly clear. Any clouds that appeared were quickly carried on the wind to destinations unknown.

A word about Chicago: I know all major cities have issues with homelessness, blight, trash, noise, crime, etc. but my initial impressions on this visit to what was admittedly a very small area in downtown Chicago were these: The streets, sidewalks, buildings, and bridges were for the most part clean. By comparison, the streets and sidewalks in downtown Los Angeles in my experience are filthy and no government agency seems to be charged with more than an occasional street sweeping. After a street sweeping, the ground is still black with dirt, gum, and who knows what else. The people we met were polite and friendly. There seems to be an emphasis on culture and preserving the city's history and finally the city's architecture is beautiful.

I'd love to return in the near future for an extended visit. There is so much I want to see.

While taking photos in the city, I made sure to create several panoramas but the Affinity Photo software which I am using on my iPad Pro does not seem to be able to successfully stitch them. I may have to just post individual HDR merges and stitch the panoramas when I return home. 

We are currently back on an Amtrak train crossing West Virginia. Looking forward to being in Washington DC tonight.

1948 Chevrolet Fleetline and Point Fermin Lighthouse

About 6 or 7 years ago during my vacation from work, I attended a car show at the seaside town of San Pedro, California. The Legends car club was hosting their yearly big event at Point Fermin park. Roll in was scheduled for 7am but we arrived around 5am and found about 50+ cars waiting in the dark to be admitted. The organizers recognized my wife from her attending other events and they kindly granted us both early admission. We walked around the park and found the host club member's cars parked in some prime spots. One of those was this pristine 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline located right in front of the historic Point Fermin Light house. With the moon rapidly setting and the blue hour fading more and more by the minute, Kathy and I didn't waste time. We setup our tripods, cameras, remote shutter releases and started shooting. Later that morning there were thousands of people walking around the park and taking photos the way we like to take them became impossible. That was ok because by that time we were packing up and making ready to leave with several hundred photos each saved on our memory cards.